1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the packaging of electronic assemblies, and more particularly, to electronic assemblies, such as a PCMCIA card assembly, suitable for attachment to electronic systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic assemblies are useful in a wide variety of electronic systems for ease of configuration of specific capabilities of such a system. One such type of assembly includes interface devices which plug into either a serial or parallel port of a personal computer (PCs), such as security keys, video adapters, and LAN interfaces. Another such type of assembly are peripheral cards for personal computers. Until recently, most such cards were unprotected circuit boards, having edge connectors and carrying a variety of circuit components soldered thereto, and which cards were installed into a PC by opening the case of the PC and inserting the card's edge connector into a mating backplane connector.
Recently, a new type of PC peripheral card standard was adopted known as the PCMCIA card. Even though originally developed for memory expansion cards (the acronym "PCMCIA" stands for "Personal Computer Memory Card International Association"), this standard has since seen wide adoption in a wide variety of peripheral cards, such as RAM (volatile memory), FLASH EEPROM (non-volatile memory), hard disks, FAX/modems, data acquisition interfaces, and LAN interfaces, and has become virtually standard fare for recently introduced laptop, sub-laptop, and personal digital assistant (PDAs) computers. PCMCIA Interfaces are also available for more traditional desktop computers, as well.
PCMCIA cards are very popular because of their small size, standardized interface, standardized form factor, ease of end-user installation, and lower risk of end-user caused damage to a host electronic system. Nonetheless, cost is still a major issue, and lower cost still desired. Due to the extremely small size of a PCMCIA card, packaging costs are potentially higher than larger format packaging solutions. Assembling a PCMCIA card typically requires high precision, surface-mount (SMT), printed wiring board (PWB) manufacturing techniques.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical PCMCIA card, shown with the overlying protective cover removed so as to expose the printed wiring board (PWB) and attached circuit components. Housing 104 contains a PCMCIA connector 100 attached to a printed wiring board 102. An integrated circuit 110 having a "glob-top" protective coating, a traditional leaded plastic encapsulated integrated circuit 106, surface mounted chip components 108 and 109, and component 111 are each shown surface-mounted to the printed wiring board 102. Furthermore, a second connector 112 is also attached to the printed wiring board 102.
Even though affording many advantages over earlier assemblies, manufacturing costs are not insignificant. An assembly having an even lower manufacturing cost is desired.